Different method worked for removal of dottyback

[Crash]

I was on a mission to remove the neon dottyback back from my tank. I am moving him to the larger 125gal tank where he will permanently reside. I tried the 2 liter method for 2 days. No success.. I recently asked my lfs for a better way to catch this smart/curious little guy. The lfs owner suggested getting 1" or larger pvc with one elbow on the end. Place the pvc pipe in the tank with the elbow on the substrate and the longer open end sticking out the water. Place the elbow at a 45 degree angle touching the glass. Next comes the wait ...

The neon dotty back likes exploring and caves, even more then food (at least that was the idea behind the lfs). Sure enough... after 15 min the dottyback swam into the elbow and up the tube, at which point I just turned the pvc slightly so the elbow is flush with the glass, then cap it. Remove fish, then acclimate to new tank. this method worked faster for me than the 2 liter trap. Just wanted to share my experience for anyone trying to remove these guys without wanting to remove water/rock and not having luck with the 2 liter method.

 

[Tony Gill]

Thanks for sharing. I have used similar methods for collecting dottybacks in the wild. Your story also reminded me of an experience I had nearly 30 years ago when I was first starting my research on dottyback taxonomy. I had a set of cages in a large tank, each containing a single dottyback; there was also one individual swimming free in the main part of the tank. At the time I thought I had two different species in the cages, as they had very different colour patterns. I was heading out of town for a weekend, so decided to check the cages to make sure the water flow through them was adequate. In the process of checking them, I managed to tilt the cage unit allowing a fish to escape. I spent over an hour trying to catch it, but had to give up or miss my train. I should point out that the escape fish was of a different coloration ("species") to the one already loose in the tank. I returned from my weekend away expecting to find one or both of the fish idead. However, they had paired up! The two very different colour patterns ended up being the two sexes of a single species (now known as Ogilbyina novaehollandiae), rather than different species. This led me to explore sexual dimorphism in dottybacks generally, and really helped me sort the taxonomy of the group out. Sometimes accidents are good things!

Tony